The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume I Part 8

[Footnote 75: A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 428 _sq._]

[Footnote 76: Antoine Cabaton, _Nouvelles Recherches sur les Chams_ (Paris, 1901), pp. 18 _sq._]

[Footnote 77: Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 513 _sq._]

[Footnote 78: Father G. Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in _Life in California, by an American_ [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 298 _sq._]

[Footnote 79: Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, xvi. (London, 1814) p. 273.]

[Footnote 80: P. A. Kleint.i.tschen, _Die Kustenbewohner der Gazellehalbinsel_ (Hiltrup bei Munster, N.D.), p. 334.]

[Footnote 81: A. Landes, "Contes et Legendes Annamites," _Cochinchine francaise, Excursions et Reconnaissances_, No. 25 (Saigon, 1886), pp.

108 _sq._]

[Footnote 82: Otto Meyer, "Mythen und Erzahlungen von der Insel Vuatom (Bismarck-Archipel, Sudsee)," _Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 724.]

[Footnote 83: H. Sundermann, "Die Insel Nias und die Mission daselbst,"

_Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift_, xi. (1884) p. 451; E. Modigliani, _Un Viaggio a Nias_ (Milan, 1890), p. 295.]

[Footnote 84: R. Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch-Guiana_ (Leipsig, 1847-1848), ii. 319.]

[Footnote 85: R. Schomburgk, _op. cit._ ii. 320.]

[Footnote 86: R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p.

265; W. Gray, "Some Notes on the Tannese," _Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie_, vii. (1894) p. 232.]

[Footnote 87: C. Ribbe, _Zwei Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln_ (Dresden-Blasowitz, 1903), p. 148.]

[Footnote 88: Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R.

Neuhauss's _Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 161 _sq._]

[Footnote 89: Josef Meier, "Mythen und Sagen der Admiralitatsinsulaner,"

_Anthropos_, iii. (1908) p. 193.]

[Footnote 90: George Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910), p. 365; George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa_ (London, 1884), pp. 8 _sq._]

[Footnote 91: See above, p. 70.]

[Footnote 92: A. C. Kruijt, "De legenden der Poso-Alfoeren aangaande de erste menschen," _Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, x.x.xviii. (1894) p. 340.]

[Footnote 93: D. F. A. Hervey, "The Mentra Traditions," _Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, No. 10 (December 1882), p.

190; W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_ (London, 1906), ii. 337 _sq._]

[Footnote 94: Guerlach, "Moeurs et Superst.i.tions des sauvages Ba-hnars,"

_Missions Catholiques_, xix. (1887) p. 479.]

[Footnote 95: (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardiman, _Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States_, Part i. vol. i. (Rangoon, 1900) pp. 408 _sq._]

[Footnote 96: R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 428. On this narrative the author remarks: "This story appears to bear too close a resemblance to the Biblical account of the Fall. Is it genuine or not? Mr. Bulmer admits that it may have been invented by the aborigines after they had heard something of Scripture history."]

[Footnote 97: Th. Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_, Second Edition (London, 1860), i. 204 _sq._ For another Fijian story of the origin of death, see above, p. 67.]

[Footnote 98: Josef Meier, "Mythen und Sagen der Admiralitatsinsulaner,"

_Anthropos_, iii. (1908) p. 194.]

[Footnote 99: Josef Meier, _op. cit._ pp. 194 _sq._]

[Footnote 100: C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia_ (London, 1911), pp. 80 _sq._ A like tale is told by the Balolo of the Upper Congo. See _Folk-lore_, xii. (1901) p. 461; and below, p. 472.]

[Footnote 101: J. Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee," _Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 436, quoting "the Payne ma.n.u.script, of date about 1835." Compare _id._, pp. 252-254, 436 _sq._]

[Footnote 102: _Relations des Jesuites_, 1634, p. 13 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858).]

[Footnote 103: Sir Harry Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_ (London, 1904), ii. 700-705 (the story was taken down by Mr. J. F. Cunningham); Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 460-464. The story is briefly told by Mr. L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), pp. 439 _sq._]

[Footnote 104: J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stamme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 590-593.]

[Footnote 105: R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp.

265 _sq._]

[Footnote 106: A. Weissmann, _Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems_, vol. i. (Oxford, 1891) pp. 25 _sq._]

[Footnote 107: A. R. Wallace, quoted in A. Weissmann's _Essays upon Heredity_, i. (Oxford, 1891) p. 24 note.]

LECTURE IV

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE ABORIGINES OF CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

[Sidenote: Proposed survey of the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead, as these are found among the various races of men, beginning with the lowest savages.]

In previous lectures we have considered the ideas which savages in general entertain of death and its origin. To-day we begin our survey of the beliefs and practices of particular races in regard to the dead. I propose to deal separately with some of the princ.i.p.al races of men and to shew in detail how the belief in human immortality and the worship of the dead, to which that belief naturally gives rise, have formed a more or less important element of their religion. And in order to trace as far as possible the evolution of that worship in history I shall begin with the lowest savages about whom we possess accurate information, and shall pa.s.s from them to higher races until, if time permitted, we might come to the civilised nations of antiquity and of modern times. In this way, by comparing the ideas and practices of peoples on different planes of culture we may be able approximately to reconstruct or represent to ourselves with a fair degree of probability the various stages through which this particular phase of religion may be supposed to have pa.s.sed in the great civilised races before the dawn of history. Of course all such reconstructions must be more or less conjectural. In the absence of historical doc.u.ments that is inevitable; but our reconstruction will be more or less probable according to the degree in which the corresponding stages of evolution are found to resemble or differ from each other in the various races of men. If we find that tribes at approximately the same level of culture in different parts of the world have approximately the same religion, we may fairly infer that religion is in a sense a function of culture, and therefore that all races which have traversed the same stages of culture in the past have traversed also the same stages of religion; in short that, allowing for many minor variations, which flow inevitably from varying circ.u.mstances such as climate, soil, racial temperament, and so forth, the course of religious development has on the whole been uniform among mankind. This enquiry may be called the embryology of religion, in as much as it seeks to do for the development of religion what embryology in the strict sense of the word attempts to do for the development of life. And just as biology or the science of life naturally begins with the study of the lowest sorts of living beings, the humble protozoa, so we shall begin our enquiry with a study of the lowest savages of whom we possess a comparatively full and accurate record, namely, the aborigines of Australia.

[Sidenote: Savagery a case not of degeneracy but of arrested or rather r.e.t.a.r.ded development.]

At the outset I would ask you to bear in mind that, so far as evidence allows us to judge, savagery in all its phases appears to be nothing but a case of arrested or rather r.e.t.a.r.ded development. The old view that savages have degenerated from a higher level of culture, on which their forefathers once stood, is dest.i.tute alike of evidence and of probability. On the contrary, the information which we possess as to the lower races, meagre and fragmentary as it unfortunately is, all seems to point to the conclusion that on the whole even the most savage tribes have reached their low level of culture from one still lower, and that the upward movement, though so slow as to be almost imperceptible, has yet been real and steady up to the point where savagery has come into contact with civilisation. The moment of such contact is a critical one for the savages. If the intellectual, moral, and social interval which divides them from the civilised intruders exceeds a certain degree, then it appears that sooner or later the savages must inevitably perish; the shock of collision with a stronger race is too violent to be withstood, the weaker goes to the wall and is shattered. But if on the other hand the breach between the two conflicting races is not so wide as to be impa.s.sable, there is a hope that the weaker may a.s.similate enough of the higher culture of the other to survive. It was so, for example, with our barbarous forefathers in contact with the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome; and it may be so in future with some, for example, of the black races of the present day in contact with European civilisation. Time will shew. But among the savages who cannot permanently survive the shock of collision with Europe may certainly be numbered the aborigines of Australia. They are rapidly dwindling and wasting away, and before very many years have pa.s.sed it is probable that they will be extinct like the Tasmanians, who, so far as we can judge from the miserably imperfect records of them which we possess, appear to have been savages of an even lower type than the Australians, and therefore to have been still less able to survive in the struggle for existence with their vigorous European rivals.

[Sidenote: Physical causes which have r.e.t.a.r.ded progress in Australia.]

The causes which have r.e.t.a.r.ded progress in Australia and kept the aboriginal population at the lowest level of savagery appear to be mainly two; namely, first, the geographical isolation and comparatively small area of the continent, and, second, the barren and indeed desert nature of a great part of its surface; for the combined effect of these causes has been, by excluding foreign compet.i.tors and seriously restricting the number of compet.i.tors at home, to abate the rigour of compet.i.tion and thereby to restrain the action of one of the most powerful influences which make for progress. In other words, elements of weakness have been allowed to linger on, which under the sterner conditions of life entailed by fierce compet.i.tion would long ago have been eliminated and have made way for elements better adapted to the environment. What is true of the human inhabitants of Australia in this respect is true also of its fauna and flora. It has long been recognised that the animals and plants of Australia represent on the whole more archaic types of life than the animals and plants of the larger continents; and the reason why these antiquated creatures have survived there rather than elsewhere is mainly that, the area of compet.i.tion being so much restricted through the causes I have mentioned, these comparatively weak forms of animal and vegetable life have not been killed off by stronger compet.i.tors. That this is the real cause appears to be proved by the rapidity with which many animals and plants introduced into Australia from Europe tend to overrun the country and to oust the old native fauna and flora.[108]

[Sidenote: In the centre of Australia the natural conditions of life are most unfavourable; hence the central aborigines have remained in a more primitive state than those of the coasts, where food and water are more plentiful.]

I have said that among the causes which have kept the aborigines of Australia at a very low level of savagery must be reckoned the desert nature of a great part of the country. Now it is the interior of the continent which is the most arid, waste, and barren. The coasts are comparatively fertile, for they are watered by showers condensed from an atmosphere which is charged with moisture by the neighbouring sea; and this condensation is greatly facilitated in the south-eastern and eastern parts of the continent by a high range of mountains which here skirts the coast for a long distance, attracting the moisture from the ocean and precipitating it in the form of snow and rain. Thus the vegetation and hence the supply of food both animal and vegetable in these well-watered portions of the continent are varied and plentiful.

In striking contrast with the fertility and abundance of these favoured regions are the stony plains and bare rocky ranges of the interior, where water is scarce, vegetation scanty, and animal life at certain seasons of the year can only with difficulty be maintained. It would be no wonder if the natives of these arid sun-scorched wildernesses should have lagged behind even their savage brethren of the coasts in respect of material and social progress; and in fact there are many indications that they have done so, in other words, that the aborigines of the more fertile districts near the sea have made a greater advance towards civilisation than the tribes of the desert interior. This is the view of men who have studied the Australian savages most deeply at first hand, and, so far as I can judge of the matter without any such first-hand acquaintance, I entirely agree with their opinion. I have given my reasons elsewhere and shall not repeat them here. All that I wish to impress on you now is that in aboriginal Australia a movement of social and intellectual progress, slow but perceptible, appears to have been setting from the coast inwards, and that, so far as such things can be referred to physical causes, this particular movement in Australia would seem to have been initiated by the sea acting through an abundant rainfall and a consequent abundant supply of food.[109]